It’s often difficult to take anything out of tournament-opening matches. National teams are still getting used to their systems and their combinations, and there’s often a cautiousness about them.

The Eddies have completed the paperwork when it comes to signing these two players, and the Canadian Soccer Association has done its part. But the Eddies need the Spanish FA to sign off on Fisk — who most recently played in Spain — and the Portuguese federation to green-light Galvao’s move.

It was at that moment that I felt like I had been winded. There are so few words to describe the gut-wrenching feeling I still have when I think back to that moment after Paul scored that goal.

Glen McNamara had hopes that his young son would follow him as a soccer professional. The former All-Canadian goalkeeper from York University began work with his boy, Taylor Mikael, when the kid was a three-year-old. Twenty years later, the younger McNamara has hit the professional circuit like his father – just not at the same position. “When I was young, he always wanted to get me the ball at my feet but every once in a while, he gave me some hand drills,” says McNamara, a midfielder with Dayton Dutch Lions FC of the United Soccer Leagues’ Pro division. “He realized that I wasn’t growing fast enough to be a keeper.”

For all the Canadian soccer fans hoping to make short hops across the border to catch World Cup games in 2022, there is disappointment. The United States’ bid to host the tourney was unsuccessful, as FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.